2008 Woodie Awards
Shecitah Controversy
Adi Isaacs
Issue date: 12/27/04 Section: Features
Could it be possible that the "kosher" meat we have been eating for all of these years is not all that kosher?
On Wednesday December 1, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a complaint against a kosher slaughterhouse for alleged cruelty in the process of slaughtering cattle there. The complaint caused a major ruckus not only for the Orthodox Union, the kosher supervision that literally gives its seal of approval on the meat, but also caused problems for the providers of the meat throughout the world including Israel, Europe, and England.
As early back as the year 2003, PETA received complaints regarding violations of kosher and federal laws at AgriProcesors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse supervised by the Orthodox Union. The slaughterhouse also processes meat for the widely distributed Rubashkin/Aarons Best label (and also sold at the Wilf Campus Caff-Store).
In May 2003, PETA wrote to the officials at the plant asking permission to advise them on how to avoid abuse to the animals. The AgriPorcessor's attorney response stated: "Kosher slaughter is being conducted in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Jewish law, which prescribes the most humane treatment of animals."
After PETA's requests went unnoticed, it secretly placed a video-camera in the slaughterhouse during the summer of 2004 for nearly eight weeks. After releasing an article in the New York Times this past November divulging the abusive techniques used to slaughter the animals, PETA also publicized video footage showing slaughterhouse workers cutting and pulling the throats out of living steers and then dumping the animals on the floor where they thrashed and bellowed until their death. PETA filed lawsuits along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture against both the plant and the Orthodox Union.
Jewish history is replete with various shecitah controversies that questioned the humanness of ritual slaughter. In 1933 the Nazi regime banned ritual slaughter, unless certain "humanitarian reforms" were introduced. Recently in 2002, Holland nearly outlawed kosher slaughter on account of its alleged cruelty to animals. The issue of contention this time is related specifically to the carotid arteries, which is the brain's main blood supplier. Severing the artery makes the animal insensate within a few seconds, but the animals can still appear alive and functioning; PETA claimed its video showed animals that already had their carotid arteries cut walking around the slaughterhouse, while others roared with pain. In the past, the USDA has actually encouraged secondary incisions in the animal's throat, which in the AgriProcessor plant was sometimes performed by cutting out the trachea. The purpose of the second cutting would be let the blood drain from the animal quicker, though it would have been dead since the initial incision. PETA feels that cutting out the trachea causes the animals to suffer unnecessarily.
On Wednesday December 1, the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed a complaint against a kosher slaughterhouse for alleged cruelty in the process of slaughtering cattle there. The complaint caused a major ruckus not only for the Orthodox Union, the kosher supervision that literally gives its seal of approval on the meat, but also caused problems for the providers of the meat throughout the world including Israel, Europe, and England.
As early back as the year 2003, PETA received complaints regarding violations of kosher and federal laws at AgriProcesors Inc. in Postville, Iowa, the world's largest glatt kosher slaughterhouse supervised by the Orthodox Union. The slaughterhouse also processes meat for the widely distributed Rubashkin/Aarons Best label (and also sold at the Wilf Campus Caff-Store).
In May 2003, PETA wrote to the officials at the plant asking permission to advise them on how to avoid abuse to the animals. The AgriPorcessor's attorney response stated: "Kosher slaughter is being conducted in accordance with the letter and spirit of the Jewish law, which prescribes the most humane treatment of animals."
After PETA's requests went unnoticed, it secretly placed a video-camera in the slaughterhouse during the summer of 2004 for nearly eight weeks. After releasing an article in the New York Times this past November divulging the abusive techniques used to slaughter the animals, PETA also publicized video footage showing slaughterhouse workers cutting and pulling the throats out of living steers and then dumping the animals on the floor where they thrashed and bellowed until their death. PETA filed lawsuits along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture against both the plant and the Orthodox Union.
Jewish history is replete with various shecitah controversies that questioned the humanness of ritual slaughter. In 1933 the Nazi regime banned ritual slaughter, unless certain "humanitarian reforms" were introduced. Recently in 2002, Holland nearly outlawed kosher slaughter on account of its alleged cruelty to animals. The issue of contention this time is related specifically to the carotid arteries, which is the brain's main blood supplier. Severing the artery makes the animal insensate within a few seconds, but the animals can still appear alive and functioning; PETA claimed its video showed animals that already had their carotid arteries cut walking around the slaughterhouse, while others roared with pain. In the past, the USDA has actually encouraged secondary incisions in the animal's throat, which in the AgriProcessor plant was sometimes performed by cutting out the trachea. The purpose of the second cutting would be let the blood drain from the animal quicker, though it would have been dead since the initial incision. PETA feels that cutting out the trachea causes the animals to suffer unnecessarily.